A very merry, sunny Xmas
So I knew it would be weird experiencing Xmas in the middle of Summer, but nothing quite prepares you for the disorienting experience of wearing shorts on Xmas Eve. There's been some rain too tho', but it hasn't stopped us:
- doing the coast-coast walk across Auckland. A mere 16 km. Top way to see the city (we threw in the Auckland museum and the art gallery for good measure. INteresting expo of gender exploration by artists from the 1970s and a fantastic expo of an artist called Robin White. Basically wood prints but with a real humanity to them.)
- dinner at Michaela's house (she used to work with Marv). Home cookin' - HURRAH!
- camping trip on the Coromandel peninsula. Hobbit land. It's sort of extreme Englishness. It's volcanic land so very steep pointy hills, but the volcanic soil being so fertile means the whole horizon is velvety and verdant. We camped on the beach at Fletcher bay, right at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula (to the east of Auckland). ANd cooked on our new stove. Didn't burn it too much. ANd slept in our new tent. It kept the rain out. Lovely.
- Trip to Cathedral Cove. Beach with big cathedral like vaults of rock.
- Walk along Hot Water Beach. Ok, now this really was weird. Rivers heated by volcanos run under the beach so you can dig down only a few inches and sink down into almost boiling water. And then freezing Pacific washes over you and cools you down for a second before the heat of the water reasserts itself. People take spades down there, dig themselves baths and spend hte afternoon there. We stuck with paddling, but it was truly odd.
- Now driving to Rotorua where we're going to spend Xmas day. Driving through gorgeous gold-mining country. One needn't mind the rain here as a. you know the sun is going to shine at some point and b. it makes for the most lush countryside.
xx
So I knew it would be weird experiencing Xmas in the middle of Summer, but nothing quite prepares you for the disorienting experience of wearing shorts on Xmas Eve. There's been some rain too tho', but it hasn't stopped us:
- doing the coast-coast walk across Auckland. A mere 16 km. Top way to see the city (we threw in the Auckland museum and the art gallery for good measure. INteresting expo of gender exploration by artists from the 1970s and a fantastic expo of an artist called Robin White. Basically wood prints but with a real humanity to them.)
- dinner at Michaela's house (she used to work with Marv). Home cookin' - HURRAH!
- camping trip on the Coromandel peninsula. Hobbit land. It's sort of extreme Englishness. It's volcanic land so very steep pointy hills, but the volcanic soil being so fertile means the whole horizon is velvety and verdant. We camped on the beach at Fletcher bay, right at the top of the Coromandel Peninsula (to the east of Auckland). ANd cooked on our new stove. Didn't burn it too much. ANd slept in our new tent. It kept the rain out. Lovely.
- Trip to Cathedral Cove. Beach with big cathedral like vaults of rock.
- Walk along Hot Water Beach. Ok, now this really was weird. Rivers heated by volcanos run under the beach so you can dig down only a few inches and sink down into almost boiling water. And then freezing Pacific washes over you and cools you down for a second before the heat of the water reasserts itself. People take spades down there, dig themselves baths and spend hte afternoon there. We stuck with paddling, but it was truly odd.
- Now driving to Rotorua where we're going to spend Xmas day. Driving through gorgeous gold-mining country. One needn't mind the rain here as a. you know the sun is going to shine at some point and b. it makes for the most lush countryside.
xx
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